on; the count looked at the lady.

The baroness, as was evident, was thorough in whatever she undertook.
She waited for the full obscuration--until the last vestige of moonlight
had vanished, and only a strange-looking, dull, copper-hued ball hung in
the sky.

The baroness now rose and went into the house. The astronomer on the
castle tower observed that she neglected to close the veranda door.

It was now quite dark; the silence of midnight reigned over everything.

Count Vavel waited in his observatory until the moon emerged from
shadow.

Instead of the moon, something quite different came within the field of
vision.

From the shrubbery in the rear of the manor there emerged a man. He
looked cautiously about him, then signaled backward with his hand,
whereupon a second man, then a third and a fourth, appeared.

Dark as it was, the count could distinguish that the men wore masks, and
carried hatchets in their hands. He could not see what sort of clothes
they wore.

They were robbers.

One of the men swung himself over the iron trellis of the veranda; his
companions waited below, in the shadow of the gate.

The count hastened from his observatory.

First he wakened Henry.

"Robbers have broken into the manor, Henry!"

"The rascals certainly chose a good time to do it; now that the moon is
in shadow, no one will see them," sleepily returned Henry.

"I saw them, and I am going to scare them away."

"We can fire off our guns from here; that will scare them," suggested
Henry.

"Are you out of your senses, Henry? We should frighten Marie; and were
she to learn that there are robbers in the neighborhood, she would want
to go away from here, and you know we are chained to this place."

"Yes; then I don't know what we can do. Shall I go down and rouse the
village?"

"So that you may be called on to testify before a court, and be
compelled to tell who you are, what you are, and how you came here?"
impatiently interposed the count.

"That is true. Then I can't raise an alarm?"

"Certainly not. Do as I tell you. Stop here in the castle, take your
station in front of Marie's door, and I will go over to the manor. Give
me your walking-stick."

"What? You are going after the robbers with a walking-stick?"

"They are only petty thieves; they are not real robbers. Men of this
sort will run when they hear a footstep. Besides, there are only four of
them."

"Four against one who has nothing but a cudgel!"